Diana Farrell, an economic aide who left her government job in July to run the J.P. Morgan Chase Institute, made her remarks at Fortune's annual "Most Powerful Women" summit last week. Farrell says that, despite U.S. unemployment figures falling to a six-year low in September, it took 80 months for the nation to achieve that level.
She feels the impact of unemployment or under-employment on the 18-to-29-year-old segment of the population during those six years could be "horrific" in terms of difficulties in establishing career profiles. Farrell also worries that job recovery has taken increasingly longer with each of the past five recessions, and is concerned about the slowing investment rate of U.S. companies – which she feels are sitting on too much cash.